Creating a Stormwater Utility Web App
The City of Fairfax began a public education campaign in Fall 2021 related to its proposed Stormwater Utility (SWU), a fee-for-service mechanism that would create a dedicated funding source for the City’s stormwater management capital needs. Under the proposed SWU, private property owners would be assigned one Billing Unit (BU) per 500 square feet of impervious surface area on a parcel. Leadership in the City’s Public Works Department expressed an interest in creating a web application that would allow residents to see how the SWU would affect their property. The web app developed for the City by the presenter allows residents to search by address to see a total calculated impervious surface area and an associated BU total. The app uses logical functions within custom Arcade expressions to provide additional information where applicable, such as disclaimers related to community common areas, multiple addresses existing on the same parcel, and other unique circumstances.